Tallying Job Losses and Gains in Idaho’s Construction and Manufacturing Sectors
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A worker monitored a conveyor belt at a Potlatch Corporation production facility in Lewiston in 2006. The company has since laid off workers.
Brookings Institution economist Gary Burtless highlights recent national gains in the manufacturing and construction sectors after last week’s news that the unemployment rate has dropped to 8.3 percent. However Burtless puts those gains in perspective, writing:
Service-producing employers in the private sector are the source of an overwhelming share of net new employment in the United States. Since January 2011 the private service sector has accounted for four-fifths of private-sector job growth and more than nine-tenths of overall job growth. — Gary Burtless, Brookings Institution
Nationally, construction employment has increased by 2 percent since January of 2011.Ā That said, construction payrolls remained down by about a quarter compared to pre-recession levels.
Compared to the situation here in Idaho, that actually sounds pretty good.Ā Between 2007 — when construction employment peaked in the state — and the end of last year, the number of construction jobs in Idaho dropped by about 44 percent.Ā That’s based on data from the Idaho Department of Labor’s nonfarm employment forecast.Ā Employment in the sector has not yet started to come back, as it has nationally.
The manufacturing sector, which also has prompted some measured but good press about job creation, shows small signs of revival here in Idaho.Ā In 2007, employment in the sector stood at 66,300.Ā In 2011, manufacturing jobs employed 54,500, a decrease of about 18 percent.Ā The 2011 employment number is up about 2.5 percent from the previous year.
If you hold a construction or manufacturing job in Idaho — or used to — tell us what you think.Ā What are the prospects for those jobs now?Ā What do you believe Idaho should do to foster growth of good-paying jobs?Ā Comment, send us a note, or tell your story through StateImpact Idaho’s new unemployment app.
